"Small is beautiful" for Wales
Tuesday 02 February 2010
RhylTHE FAW's head of competitions, Andrew Howard, argues that a 12-club or smaller Premier League is the right size for Wales.
As the size and structure debate continues Howard says that "small is beautiful" and compares the domestic top flight with other European leagues
"European top divisions range from eight to 20 teams, with the most frequent format being a league of 16 teams, which 12 of the 53 Uefa countries used in 2007/8," he says.
"As we are all aware, the Welsh Premier League will be reducing to 12 teams for next season, which was the second most popular structure at the time with 11 leagues throughout Europe.
"Northern Ireland reduced from 16 to 12 for the 2008/9 campaign, but Croatia went the other way up to 16 last year.
"The other 10 nations which currently use a 12-team league are Scotland, Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Slovakia, Moldova, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Israel."
The latest Uefa benchmarking report states, "Size of population is clearly a major factor in determining how many teams the top division can support. In addition, commercial preferences and the history of top divisions can play a role."
"Interestingly, twelve Nations have ten or fewer clubs in their top-division, which includes Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Faroe Islands, Malta, Andorra, Estonia, and Armenia. The latter five, like Wales, are known in UEFA as Micro Nations as average turnover for clubs is less than €350,000," Howard continued.
"Wales, along with those eight aforementioned Nations, are nine of 13 countries whose top division averages less than 1,000 spectators per match.
"There’s an obvious correlation here, where leagues with small average attendances cannot sustain large-sized leagues with any success.
"Wales, with 18 member clubs currently, is only on a par with Belgium, Germany, Romania, Turkey and the Netherlands in terms of its membership. Those leagues average from 7,000 (Romania) to 40,000 (Germany) attendances. Last season, the Welsh Premier League averaged 289.
"The Uefa coefficient ranking is also a useful statistic to consider. Wales is ranked 47th in a 53-country table. In comparison the other Nations with 18 teams are ranked as follows: Belgium (13), Germany (5), Romania (7), Turkey (11), Netherlands (9).
"So, just by looking at attendances, turnover and Uefa coefficient, for Wales to have 18 clubs is in complete contrast to the rest of Europe, so the reduction is certainly occurring at the right time."
Howard is concerned about the fixture structure for next season and does not believe that the 44-game programme will be adopted without a second vote between the 12 member clubs that will eventually form the 2010/11 Welsh Premier League.
"Neither do I believe that it is the best option," he added.
"I believe that teams should play each other twice, making a total of 22 fixtures before a ‘split’.
"Critics would argue that this isn’t enough games to decide whether half the league should be ruled out of championship or European contention so quickly.
"However take this season for example - clubs haven’t played that many games yet and looking at the table as it stands, I don’t believe that any club outside the top six now can win the title or will qualify for Europe.
"After the split the two mini-leagues of six then play each other twice again (home and away) and that makes for a 32-game season.
"Another possible solution for next season? Why not start the campaign in early August, play 22 games and finish by Christmas.
"The players can earn a well earned break during the horrible January and February weather, which isn’t conducive to attractive football or appealing for spectators and kick-off the 2011 season in March with summer football…just food for thought!"